Issued by
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)

Purpose

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) announces a change in policy on application submissions. Effective immediately, for application due dates after May 28, 2014, following an unsuccessful resubmission (A1) application, applicants may submit the same idea as a new (A0) application for the next appropriate due date. NIOSH will not assess the similarity of the science in the new (A0) application to any previously reviewed submission when accepting an application for review. Although a new (A0) application does not allow an introduction or responses to the previous reviews, the NIOSH encourages applicants to refine and strengthen all application submissions.

Background

During the Enhancing Peer Review initiative, the NIOSH reduced the number of allowable resubmission applications from two to one (NOT-OH-10-008), and stipulated that any subsequent submission for that project must demonstrate significant changes in scientific direction compared to the previous submissions. Those policies were implemented to address the growing trend for resubmission applications to be scored more favorably, which in essence created a queue for meritorious applications before success in funding.

In this extended period of tight funding, this approach has resulted in meritorious research applications being deemed ineligible for additional submissions, and investigators having to propose substantial changes to productive research programs. New investigators may have been affected because new research directions may be quite difficult during this phase in their careers.

Policy

Effective immediately, NIOSH will accept a new (A0) application following an unsuccessful resubmission (A1) application. The subsequent new application need not demonstrate substantial changes in scientific direction compared to previously reviewed submissions, and must not contain an introduction to respond to the critiques from the previous review.

NIOSH will not accept duplicate or highly overlapping applications under review at the same time. This means that the NIOSH will not accept:

a new (A0) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of an overlapping resubmission (A1) application.

a resubmission (A1) application that is submitted before issuance of the summary statement from the review of the previous new (A0) application.

an application that has substantial overlap with another application pending appeal of initial peer review.

The NIOSH time limit for accepting resubmission (A1) applications remains in effect. The NIOSH will not accept a resubmission (A1) application that is submitted later than 37 months after submission of the new (A0) application that it follows.